Pia Toscano Opens Up About Her Budding Mark Ballas Romance & Five 'Idol' Auditions; Plus, Is She Recording A Single?

April 21, 2011 02:36 PM EDT

She may have been rejected by “American Idol,” but booted contestant Pia Toscano has found someone who is happy to accept her in “Dancing with the Stars” pro, Mark Ballas.

“We both film at CBS so we would bump into each other, and you know, he’s just a really sweet guy,” Pia told Access Hollywood Live’s Billy Bush and Kit Hoover of her new friend on Thursday’s show. “He is a very nice guy.”

In addition to their recent reported romantic pairing, Pia and Mark will team up for a performance on “Dancing with the Stars” next week, when the New York native will lend her pipes to ABC’s hit dance competition while her beau takes to the dance floor.

“I think that’s what’s going to happen. I heard that the other night,” Pia said with a coy smile. “[Mark] is going to dance – I believe with Karina [Smirnoff].”

As previously reported on AccessHollywood.com, reports in early April claimed Pia had landed a record deal with “Idol” mentor Jimmy Iovine’s Interscope Records for her debut album – but Pia said she is not working on a single “yet.”

“I actually haven’t seen Jimmy at all since I left the show, so I’m looking forward to seeing him,” she coyly told Billy and Kit. “Hopefully that’s somewhere down the line. But we’re just really focusing now on the tour.”

The ballad-loving beauty also revealed she had auditioned for “American Idol” four times prior to making the cut on her fifth shot.

“I kind of just said to myself, ‘I really want to go all the way,’” she told Billy and Kit, when asked why she thought she finally made it through on her fifth try. “And I’ve been sent home so many times – so, I applied everything that the judges told me on what I needed to improve, and I worked really hard, and this is my year.”

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